Phd in EARTH SCIENCES

My research activity aims at the implementation and validation of new non-destructive Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) protocols for investigating archaeological and historical wood remains and consolidating materials. For this purpose, I’m using both high-field NMR and low-field portable NMR spectrometers. Specifically, I’m working with high-field spectrometers in order to carry on two main research lines. The first is based on the improvement of the in plane resolution of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to obtain a complete virtual histology of wood in a non-destructive modality. MR-images can reveal diagnostic characters of wood for the species identification as showed in Capuani et al. 2020 [1] where images of modern and archaeological woods were obtained with a minimum resolution of 20x20 µm2. This allowed to observe many anatomical elements and degradation effects with the great advantage of not mechanically cutting the sample. The second research line exploits diffusion-NMR principles to extract morphological and topological information from wood microstructure, such as pores diameter, cell wall permeability, pores interconnection, tortuosity. In this sense, I’m studying modern and archaeological (Roman age) wood small samples with non-destructive high-field techniques in order to characterize their morphology and study their degradation. As presented in my work Stagno et al. 2020 [2], the combined use of diffusion-NMR and micro-MRI is a useful tool to reveal decay processes and diagnostic features of wood, demonstrating that parameters as tortuosity and water diffusion coefficient are widely affected by morphological variations of the sample. However, to overcome sample size limitations imposed by the use of non-portable high-field instruments, the same protocol is going to be translated on portable low-field spectrometer in order to obtain, in a completely non-destructive way from any size samples, the same information together with the characterization of the water compartmentalization by the measurement of relaxation parameters (such as the longitudinal relaxation time T1 and the transversal relaxation time T2). Moreover, for exploiting the great potential of portable-NMR for Cultural Heritage artworks, new approaches will be also tested. Particularly, portable NMR is being used for monitoring the effect of relative humidity (RH) variations on the water clusters of different wood species. The measurement of T1 and T2 at different RH values and the correlation of T1 vs. T2 is utilized for discriminating softwoods and hardwoods. The comparison of the relaxation times of modern wood and ancient wood belonging to the same species is useful to highlight microstructural changes due to the decay. Two-dimensional correlation T1-T2 and D-T2 experiments will be tested on the portable NMR to increase the resolution of the relaxation components in respect to the 1D experiments. I’m also studying the interaction of consolidating materials with the wood polymeric matrix and in general with porous media. In particular, solutions of polyethylene glycol in water and lignin nano-particles in water are being monitored during the interaction process with archaeological waterlogged woods. The aim is to test the effectiveness of polyethylene glycol and nano-particles as consolidating materials. EXPERIENCE 01/11/2019 - TODAY PHD, LA SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY OF ROME PhD in Environment and Cultural Heritage at Earth Sciences Department. Research field: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance at low- and high field for non-destructive characterization of ancient and modern wood. 05/09/2019 – 31/10/2019 RESEARCHER, CNR-ISC OF ROME Research experience funded by ‘’Torno Subito’’ 2018 of Lazio Region in the NMR Laboratory of CNR-ISC. Activities: Data analysis and acquisition with NMR mouse profiler on modern woods. 04/03/2019 – 31/08/2019 RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF OULU (FINLAND) Research experience funded by ‘’Torno Subito’’ 2018 of Lazio Region in the NMR research group of the University of Oulu. Activities: Experimental NMR unit member for acquisition of NMR experiments and data elaboration of archaeological woods. 01/01/2018 – 28/02/2019 INTERNSHIP, CNR-ISC OF ROME Improvement in the use of software for the NMR data elaboration and acquisitions. High-resolution and molecular diffusion NMR experiments in porous media (i.e. archaeological wood). 01/04/2016 – 29/09/2016 INTERNSHIP, CNR-ISC OF ROME Development in the use of software and new protocols for the acquisition of digital images in nuclear magnetic resonance on wooden materials. EDUCATION DECEMBER 2018 MASTER DEGREE, LA SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY OF ROME ‘’Scienze e tecnologie per la conservazione dei Beni Culturali’’. SEPTEMBER 2016 BACHELOR DEGREE , LA SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY OF ROME ‘’Tecnologie per la conservazione e il restauro dei Beni Culturali’’. JULY 2013 HIGH SCHOOL, ’’LICEO SCIENTIFICO G. PELLECCHIA’’ CASSINO (FR)